May 1 Wednesday – At the Hotel Brighton, Paris, France Sam wrote to Miss Goodridge, declining an invitation for Livy and him to dine on May 3. He pled being “gout-smitten once more, not able to put my foot to the floor all this day,” and he doubted what his condition would be by then. Another engagement also entered into his decision:
May 2 Thursday – In Paris, the Clemenses may have attended a play in the evening, the “Mr Mapes’s play” referred to in his May 1 to Miss Goodridge. Several other letters in this period do not reveal the answer. Mr. Mapes may have been related to Mary Mapes Dodge.
At the Hotel Brighton, Sam also wrote to Poultney Bigelow, who evidently upon learning of the failure of Webster & Co., had sent a check for a thousand dollars. Sam couldn’t keep it:
May 5 Sunday – In Paris Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus. He’d received “that little book” and thanked them (title not given). He announced they would sail from Vancouver, B.C. on Aug. 16 and begin reading in Sydney or Melbourne in September, then reach India in mid-January, 1896. Livy and daughter Clara would accompany him.
May 6 Monday – Andrew Chatto wrote to Sam that they’d made arrangements with Harper to “take a duplicate set of electros of the illustrations to” JA for the English edition, and would make “the best arrangements…for translations and with Tauchnitz for the Continental edition” [MTP].
May 7 Tuesday – In Paris Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto.
I am very glad you have arranged for Joan, and that I am to remain with you and not go wandering among strangers.
May 10 Friday – In Paris Sam wrote to John D. Adams, editor at The Century Co., having just received the proofs, he guessed for Oct. issue. He suggested one slight change, but found “nothing else but some misplaced commas & periods — of no consequence.” He added after his signature, “We leave to-night for America” [MTP].
The Clemens family, not together in America since 1891, left Paris for Southampton.
May 11 Saturday – In Southampton, England, the Clemens family sailed for New York on the S.S. New York. The voyage would take seven days [MTHHR 134]. Note: Sam later called this the beginning of the world tour.
The Critic, XXVI p.338-9 reviewed PW, which it called “admirable in atmosphere, local color and dialect, a drama in its way, full of powerful situations, thrilling even; but it cannot be called in any sense literature” [Tenney 24].
May 12 Sunday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York. Sam’s notebook on board:
Sunday morning. Six or eight people who came over with me in the Paris the other day. Three or four of them went up to London with our multi-millionaire to be shown his glories. It was a month ago; but to this day these men can think of nothing else, talk of nothing else. They are as happy & stunned & blessed as if they had been to heaven & dined with God [NB 34 TS 9].
May 13 Monday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.
May 14 Tuesday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.
May 15 Wednesday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.
Livy wrote to H.H. Rogers: “Please honor Mr. Clemens’s drafts upon such funds of mine as are in your hands, & greatly oblige” [MTP].
May 16 Thursday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.
May 17 Friday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York. After a concert aboard ship, Sam gave two readings for the usual Seaman’s Fund charity. The Brooklyn Eagle, May 18, 1895, p.2. “MARK TWAIN GAVE READINGS” reported:
At the Concert on the American Line Steamer New York.